Mowbray backed by former team-mate

Published on Monday 2 November 2009 22:00

JOHN Collins is confident Tony Mowbray will see out his revolution at Celtic and believes the manager simply requires a change in fortune.

Collins was team-mates with Mowbray at Celtic Park in the 1990s and admired his self-belief even then. He sees no evidence of this having changed, despite disappointing results in both Europe and domestic competitions.

Mowbray has used 27 players in his first three months in charge and made a total of 24 changes to his starting line-up in the past seven matches, only two of which Celtic won.

"He's intelligent and knows things will turn eventually and results will come," said Collins, who not only played with Mowbray at Celtic, but also succeeded him as manager at Hibernian. "Celtic have dominated every game they've played this season in Scottish football. They've controlled all the games I've seen and been the better team. They've created the most chances and missed the most chances. You've got to analyse the statistics. Certain statistics don't lie like how much possession you have of the ball and how many chances you have created. That tells you things, but football sometimes can be a cruel game, and a lot of people just look at the end result."

Mowbray himself has insisted he has no worries that Celtic's luck will change if they keep playing the way they have been doing. Saturday's 3-0 victory over Kilmarnock was achieved through a more lethal performance in front of goal, but this had not been the case in previous weeks. Collins, who endured such frustrating runs at Easter Road, is sympathetic.

"I've been there," he said. "All you can do is stand there and realise you're not far away from getting it right. It's a fine line. Tony said after the Hearts defeat last week that he went home and had a good sleep, I believe that."

Celtic have the chance to make up for poor European results on Thursday night when they face SV Hamburg in Germany. Collins, who was speaking at an event to promote ESPN's live coverage of the Europa League clash, thinks the task is not beyond them. Hamburg suffered their first league defeat at the weekend when they fell 3-2 at home against Borussia Monchengladbach.

"That's good news for Celtic," said Collins. "There might be a little bit of pressure on them now but for Celtic to go there and get the three points they'll need to be superb. I don't think this is a must-win game for Celtic but it's a must-not-lose game because a draw keeps them in with a shout in Group C."